Women Now Nearly Half of San Diego Mesa Community College's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Program

This brief case study highlights San Diego's Mesa Community College's Geographic Information Systems program, and the strategies that program has adopted to recruit and retain female students. The program took part in the CalWomen Tech Project, which was a collaborative effort by several colleges to increase enrollment of female students in technical areas of study. Some of the strategies that worked for Mesa Community College are outlined here, including: identifying female role models in GIS and taking their photos for marketing collateral to be developed by IWITTS; and distributing recruitment posters, flyers, brochures and a CalWomenTech College Website section featuring female role models. This narrative, and the lessons that can be learned from the success of Mesa Community College in this area, would be useful for other community college and technical programs looking to increase their numbers of female students.